With an entrepreneurial streak that saw him launch businesses, access to tickets to the Royal Box at Wimbledon and go on seemingly endless trips to Mustique, James Middleton appeared to have it all.
But behind closed doors, Princess Catherine’s brother was struggling with severe clinical depression.
During a harrowing night in late 2017, James, 37, planned to end his life.
He may not be here today if not for his dog Ella, who caught his gaze just in time.
“In that instant, I know I will not jump,” James said in his upcoming memoir, Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life.
“What would happen to Ella if I died?” he recalled asking himself.
The cocker spaniel, who died in 2023, had been by his side for the biggest events of his life, including his big sister’s 2011 wedding to Prince William, which thrust him into the spotlight.
In the years since, James’ proximity to the royal family hasn’t made life any easier.
“There was no official guidance from the Palace about how we should behave, but William would make useful suggestions,” he explained.
“And his constant mantra was, ‘Be careful.’ There were times when I got things wrong.”
Having pushed everyone away at his “lowest ebb”, James eventually sought help, attending family therapy sessions with Kate, sister Pippa and parents Michael and Carole.
“Catherine and Pippa come on board, and they understand straight away,” James said.
“[Catherine] understands so much. I’m overwhelmed. I feel such gratitude and admiration for her, for her knowledge and compassion.”
That support is something that James repaid to Kate, 42, this year as she faced her own health battle.
“Over the years, we have climbed many mountains together. As a family, we will climb this one with you too,” he posted on Instagram in March following the announcement that Kate had cancer.
While James isn’t cut out for public life, he does not doubt that Kate has found her perfect match in William.
“It was beautiful to see how he brought out her confidence,” James said about when they started dating.
“She’d blossomed. I knew he’d look after her, and he does to this day.”
With William and Kate together for over two decades, James admits that the future king “feels like an older brother”.
“I imagine that William finds it a huge solace that he is so close to the Middleton family as his relationship with his own brother [Prince] Harry has become so fractured,” royal expert Claudia Joseph told British newspaper The Sun.
However, there is one aspect of life that William, 42, doesn’t love about his in-laws. For the prince, playing card games with the “fiercely competitive” Middleton family is a no-go.
“He’d be delighted to be the first out, and when no longer compelled to take part, he’d slink off to cuddle Ella,” James said.
Ella also changed James’ life by introducing him to future wife Alizee Thevenet, after the pooch made a beeline for the stranger at a club in 2018. The couple share 11-month-old son Inigo.
“Although I would never wish it on anybody and I would never want to go through it again, I’m pleased it happened,” James told The Times of his struggles. “It was an opportunity to recalibrate and to re-evaluate what matters.”
Preorder Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life by James Middleton here.
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